Technically Not Student and Teacher
by alahnasaurus-fez
Summary: College AU: Tony Stark is turning 20 and for the last year has been teaching at the local university as a time-filler before he takes over as CEO of Stark Industries at 21. Pepper Potts has coincidentally just started her degree at the same college but getting through the three years is the main thing on her mind. Who knows what could happen this year. (rated T 'cause I'm paranoid)
1. Plot-slash-proglue

**I am so sorry for not having updated Some Nightmares' but my muse has died for that fanfic and will henceforth be an abandoned story. On the bright-side however there's is this brand spanking new story, the idea just popped into my head one day and after mentioning it to a good friend (shannon you know who you are ;)) i decided to write it, hopefully this will get updated more regularly than my previous fic as i'm using the bus journey's to and from college to write up drafts. So here is the more detailed plot/prologue R&R and enjoy :D**

A year out of College had made Tony Stark bored out of his mind, too young to take the reins at Stark Industries he decided to teach at the University of California passing on his knowledge of physic and engineering. Now it's 1994 and his last year of teaching before becoming CEO things are pretty much normal for him, boozing, flirting and sex, until he met _her_.

Pepper Potts, freshman at the University of California more than prepared for her first year at college and studying Business and Accountancy the only problem was; she knew no-one and all she wanted to do was to get through the first year without any drama and perhaps a couple of friends but _definitely _no romance, until she met _him_.


	2. Chapter 1: Memories

**Well... ta-da i guess, i managed to write all of this in the last week. ALL HAIL LONG BUS JOURNEYS! Anyway here's the first chapter and it is only in Tony's POV to start with, just my way of setting up the characters for the AU, i really hope you like this and in no way is this meant to be an _actual _student-teacher fling, just a coincidence that their both at the same college at the same time. Big thanks to Shannon (a-citizen-of-asgard) for being so helpful in getting me to write this and giving it a once over :D**

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><p>Twenty months. Twenty months since Tony has seen his parents alive, that car crash was the worst thing to have happened in his life but he didn't have the time to mourn back that. He'd been in his final year of MIT at the time of their death and of course he needed to get the exams done (or his dad would've been rolling in his grave at the news of him failing college). So he did what every Stark before him had done; bottle up all his feelings and don't think about the loss again.<p>

Easier said than done.

Everything was going fine, he'd graduated summa cum laude from MIT with two degrees in Physics and Engineering, then made it through the summer by going on vacation with Rhodey. But then he came 'home'. Well home in Tony's mind was away from the Long Island mansion he'd grown up in. Far away. With his inheritance money he'd bought a huge area of land on the Malibu Coast and had a mansion built on the cliff during his last months of college. The first time he'd entered the mansion after vacation with his best friend he realised how much of a bad idea it was, all of his belongings had been moved from the east coast mansion to here, and that included his parent's things which remained in the storage boxes at the back of the living room, sifting through the objects would just bring back too many memories that he refused to even move the boxes into storage.

Then December 17th rolled around for the first time since the accident. For a whole year he'd not thought of them once which was quite the achievement in his mind, and that day he'd tried so hard to keep his mind off his dead parents but at eighteen years old that was hard and looking upon the unsorted boxes was the worst thing he could've done. His guards cracked his emotions slowly making their way through as the memories of the few good times he'd had with his parents. But then his walls crumbled to dust, he was holding a photograph of his and his mother his fingers moved over the grainy image of her face, Maria Carbonell-Stark was the best mother he could've asked for she treated him like the child he was not somebody gifted with supreme genius. She taught him the things that he wanted to learn for fun and not because he found it easy, she made him learn Italian and piano both of which he loved it aided in keeping his mind on the creative side not just the technical.

All of the memories of him having 'secret' conversation with his mother in front of his father as a way to improve his spoken Italian as well as explaining to her the things that Howard had done to piss him off _again_. His mother was his everything and now she was gone for good. Tony broke down crying like the child he was to hell with him being eighteen it didn't matter he would always be his mother's son.

Back to the present, Tony Stark was nearing twenty years and for the last twelve months he'd been helping out as an 'assistant' lecturer-come-teacher at the University of California. A year out of MIT left him bored he'd added his own technology into his mansion including a prototype AI 'butler' to aid in the running of the property, but then the boredom had struck he still wasn't old enough to take over a CEO at Stark Industries (another reason fro him having permanent residence in Malibu, the HQ was in the Los Angeles) so to fill his time he was passing on his knowledge. At first his 'class' had been sceptical about a nineteen year old teaching eighteen year olds as technically he should've still been _in _college not teaching it with two degrees behind him however being pretty much the same age as them meant that he was able to connect with them more easily than the older professors could. The only problem that being _the _Tony Stark had led to less questions about the lessons and more about his lifestyle and his plan for the company.

After his first year he'd gained quite a bit of respect from the students and they'd adjusted to the fact that someone a year their senior was perfectly capable of teaching them what they needed to know, Tony himself was really happy about being able to teach his two classes again for their second year. But it was summer break after than first year and that meant nothing to do well nothing of high importance since he wasn't running a company, there was the Hot Rod in his workshop to tinker with if he was in a mechanical/engineering mood, or better yet he could sort out software kink in his AI that he was yet to name.

In short if he wasn't tinkering then he was getting wasted (thanks to a fake ID and a little facial hair) and getting laid pretty much every other night. Not that he actually _wanted _to, unlike a lot of people sex wasn't constantly on his mind but it turned out that sleeping around gave him a 'good' image other than the son of The Great Howard Stark, he hated being known only for his parentage, he needed something else to make him famous to be more than a child genius. Sex was really just something to relieve his boredom, okay, yes it felt nice enough but there was never any feeling to it and he could never get a girlfriend because they were under the impression that it was a one night only thing; his conquests were half plastic and had the IQ of plankton (not in the least appealing to him really) and let's be honest who wants to dare a world renowned playboy? Sex gave his hands and brain something to do, driving a bimbo crazy was a lot like tinkering with an engine; tighten a bolt here and it won't work, grope to the ass at the wrong time the slap to the face. Tony had a very mechanical mind he couldn't help but see his conquests as machines actually… he cared more for machines than them.

The summer of '94 had passed mercifully quickly and the was due to start teaching again at the college, the only date he wasn't looking forward too was September 28th, on his twentieth birthday he'd be teaching his class and no doubt he'd get some cheesy as fuck party with hats and cake and confetti; 'fuck me' were the words that immediately came to mind. It wasn't that he disliked his birthday he just didn't like a big fuss being made, a night out boozing with Rhodey was plenty enough for him but that wouldn't be happening since his best/only friend had gone off to join the Air Force and the twenty-five year old found it hard to schedule_ when _his time off base would be. Last year they'd been lucky to get the weekend before his birthday off. Though it wasn't likely to happen again.

The first week back had gone well Tony still only had the two classes to teach and that took up eight hours of his time a week, not bad in his opinion it gave him time to read a few post-graduate books he did love expanding his knowledge and as heir to the America's most valuable weapon company he needed to know a fair bit for designing new weapons of mass destruction. The library was his home during the days he was needed on campus but didn't have to teach, he was mainly needed in case students required help with their course or assignments. And that's where he was headed now, he'd just taught his engineers class which might've consisted of talking shit about some of the professors since some of them did have sticks up their arses and were quite snotty about someone so much younger being able to teach better than themselves.

At this time of day the halls were quite barren with only a couple of students dotted along the corridors, finding their lockers more interesting than other people Tony couldn't judge though as he himself was caught up in his own little world, reading through his AI's code whom he'd recently named Jarvis (after the butler in his childhood home Edwin Jarvis) using the mobile phone he'd created for himself that was decades beyond te present technology; touch sensitive screen, 'futuristic' graphics, the whole sci-fi works. His train of thought was going at a speed close to that of life as he started to add in a 'voice' for Jarvis that sounded less automated message and more like a sophisticated Briton.

That's when _that _happened.

His phone was out of his hands and in the air before he knew it then he saw it drop to the floor joining all these books and papers that had magically appeared from nowhere.

"Shit, shit, shit!" His words were frantic and at a little higher pitch than they should be for a man his age, his attempt to save the device from smashing against the hard tiled ground. He succeeded which was a relief because that phone had taken him _months _to develop and he was no clue how durable it was to collisions with hard surfaces. Once he'd rescued his mobile he lifted his head to the source of this unwanted drama, okay maybe he should've looked where he was going but he was sure it was the other person's fault too. His gaze rested on the figure in front of him ready to give them a right lecture on looking where they were going…

Oh.

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><p><strong>So one chapter done... many to go, the next will hopefully be put up in the next week or so *prays that my muse stays* please read and review any criticism is appreciated.<strong>


	3. Chapter 2: Introductions

**So ta-da here's chapter two :D really happy about how this turned out and how quickly i wrote it, i really appreciate all the reviews/faves/follows you've given this story. Thanks again to Shannon for being a wonderful beta to this ;) and apologies in advance there's not gonna be another chapter for the next 2 weeks since from the 3rd to the 11th Oct i'm gonna be in Finland with an exchange partner :S but i'll have fun and get writing again ASAP.**

**Enjoy and please leave reviews (if you want to no pressure :3)**

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><p>'Oh my god! I'm so late!" Thought the eighteen year old redhead by the name of Virginia Anna Potts, she'd barely been at college two weeks and already she was late to one of her classes. She was usually so organised but right now she looked a complete mess; hair tied back in a not exactly neat pony tail, no make-up and her arms filled with text books and notes. Her roommate could've easily woken her before she left for her own classes however, after a week of knowing Samantha it was clear that it was a rare occurrence for her to sleep in their dorm.<p>

'Stupid Ginny' She chided her herself internally as she hurried through the campus, 'She wouldn't lift a finger for you'

After High School Virginia realised that she was the only person out of her immediate friendship group/anyone one else she knew in general to be going to the University of California, she was all alone at College and was yet to make any friends though there had been progress in talking to the girl sat next to her in form. She been one of the top students in the Class of '94, cheerleader for the High School football team but other than that she was nothing special (not in her mind at least), dated a fairly regular guy on the football team and even bee in running for Prom Queen (didn't get the crown obviously that much was obvious, busty blonde bitches with tacky personalities got that title, not genuinely pleasant educated girls like her).

Throughout her life she'd always been the friend that was known as the 'less pretty' one due to the supposedly 'unfortunate' genes she'd inherited that resulted in copper red hair, aka ginger, and freckles covering her from head to toe but they weren't even that obvious and then there was the simple fact that her breasts weren't bursting out of her t-shirts. She wasn't out of the ordinary for other reason either, the middle child out of three children her parents were pretty normal too regular jobs with regular wages, her mother Deborah was a county judge and her father John was a mechanic both of them loved their jobs and they had the money to be able to feed five mouths yet still had time to spare for family even with their often hectic lives the Potts family was able to sit down at the dinner table to enjoy a _great _home-cooked meal.

Her older brother James was an amazing cook and at twenty-one he'd just graduated from the Texas Culinary Academy with a degree in the culinary arts to hand and had since stayed at home in Downey LA, honing his skills a little more before looking for a job as a chef in a restaurant in the city centre rather than the cheap café job he had right now so he could get his own place and not bother his parents so much now. Virginia loved her big brother a lot bit it was annoying to have him back in the house after his three year absence for college, the toilet seat being left up, shaving cream _everywhere, _dirty underwear hanging on the stair rail and his return meant her having to move back with her sister Liz in the back bedroom.

Elizabeth Jane Potts was a being that Ginny had learnt to _tolerate _for the last fourteen years, sure when they had their good days they were the perfect match as sister but they were also what the other despised. Best friends or arch enemies there was no in between. This love/rivalry thing they had going on twenty-four/seven was… _entertaining_ for the Potts family, and this was why Virginia and everyone else was grateful that she was able to stay on campus for the first year since the college was still far from their home and to have her parents driving her to and from wasn't fair (she herself had not learnt to drive yet). Thought her main reason for living on campus was because she really just wanted to live on her own, it seemed exciting enough and she was actually quite independent despite being in a very close family.

So that's where she was now, living in the freshman dorms in the University of California, feeling that this was the better option for her first year sororities were too much for her and quite frankly impractical for any kind of study or sleep. Yes… looking back on her decision now she would've preferred a sorority to Little Miss Stay-Out, in a house of more than six at least _somebody _would've been able to wake her; then again it would've been unpredictable who she would be with. Hell no to a house full of cheerleader sluts nor did she want to be it to be with a bunch of super-nerds, it wasn't because she was shallow neither were the right environment for her she'd feel out of place. She was smart but didn't have a massive intellect and yes she had been a cheerleader but she wasn't the stereotypical sleep-with-every-jock type.

Virginia simply was your average High School graduate and that resulted in average problems; crappy room-mate, still without friends _at _college (Her High School buddies still kept in touch with her despite time zone differences), single and late to class.

Emphasis needed on the 'single' now, while she did have a boyfriend during High School his name was Michael and like previously mentioned he was a member of the football team but they'd agreed that with her staying in California and him going to Florida for college would be too straining on them both, There were no hard feelings they were still friends even if the break up was difficult; a year and a half was a long time when it was your first relationship, they'd even been to prom together.

But that was over now and Virginia didn't want another boyfriend right now it'd only been a month since she'd broken up with Michael and to be honest the first year of college wasn't for romance, if she did meet a nice guy then that was a bonus but it wasn't her first priority.

Enough daydreaming about ex-/potential boyfriends and this redhead's personal life for now, she was still late and decided that not dropping off her books in her locker would waste less time and she didn't want to be later than she already was, damn her for being on the phone with her best friend, Latoya, nearly all night thankfully she wasn't too far away for time zones to be a problem (she studied at Washington) but then of course they'd lost track of time and it was one AM for Virginia so in other words she slept through her alarm was now speed walking towards her class, arms full of her days text books and notes.

Well they were in her arm but now they were in the air cascading onto the floor.

"Oh my god!" She dropped to her knees and hastily started to pick up her scattered belongings not bothered if they weren't in order she still had a class to get to, that's when Virginia heard the curses of another person and assumed that in her haste she'd not properly been looking when she was going. Then again the halls were fairly empty so clearly this idiot wasn't looking where they were going either and by the time she'd collected all of her notes and books she had a solid speech about special awareness lined up but that it all went to pot as she saw the staff ID card clipped to their t-shirt.

Oh _no._


	4. Chapter 3: Even Later

**Ta-da! Here's chap3 so sorry for the delay :/ had a lot of homework and coursework to get done for college :S But anyway this is all finished now and i hope you all enjoy it. Big thanks to Shannon for being a great beta yet again *tosses cookies at you through the internet***

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><p>Oh <em>no.<em>

Virginia didn't want to look up at the person in front of her now she'd read the name on that damned ID card, she could've run into _anyone _else another student, another member of staff but no she had to go and knock into Tony Stark, the man who wasn't even twenty years old yet (her sister read many gossip magazines and was obsessed with knowing pointless facts about various celebrities along with recalling these facts to her older sister) and was already known to bed any woman he lay eyes on. 'Please let this be my lucky day' She prayed to herself as she straightened her back and neck ready to shoot down his advances.

Slipping his phone into his pocket his eyes roved over her body, what he could see of it anyway her books and notes were obscuring his view of her torso but she seemed pretty enough then his gaze caught on the messy copper locks he'd never seen someone with such red hair 'Wow her hair's like fire…' He mused internally, redhead's weren't particularly his type because they never seemed the type to throw themselves at him, that was a brunette but namely blonde trait, not that he was stereotyping but he'd never had a ginger bat their eyelashes at him.

"Um hi… sorry about that," He said with a small flirtatious smirk looking her straight in the eye and yet again shocked himself at how much he liked that blue hue of her irises, it reminded him of the Arc Reactor at the Stark Industries headquarters, now he wasn't sure if having sex with her would be such a good idea, just her posture showed that she wasn't interested and judging from the books in her arms she definitely wasn't the type to easily get into a bed/bathroom, "Wasn't looking where I was going…"

His words hadn't been was she was expecting, though the smile he flashed her was what she was expecting so she didn't blush despite how good looking he was she wasn't going to fall for it, one night flings weren't for her, Ginny just didn't understand why people wanted to do that, "You weren't… but neither was I so I apologise too…" She murmured quickly tearing her eyes away from his dark chocolate ones, not wanting to appear affected by his gaze because she wasn't used to people looking at her like that, "If you don't mind I really need to get to class…"

She took a step to the side so she could carry on her path to her first class, yet again even later than before but she was halted by a large warm hand wrapping around her upper arm, "Let me give you a hand," He smiled hoping that he wasn't coming across as flirty or trying to charm her into a one-time only date and he took some of her books from her so she could at least see where she was going now, he didn't know why but he felt compelled to act like a gentleman to her maybe it was because she'd shot him down from her posture and expression alone, "It's the least I could do,"

"Wha- fine…" Ginny let out an exasperated sigh she wasn't going to be able to get out of his 'helping' so she just let him carry some of her textbooks and continued to walk to her classroom, she couldn't tell if he was helping her for the sake of being nice or because he was trying to get her to give into the 'Stark Charm', "You don't have to do this you know I'm perfectly capable of getting to my lesson with my textbooks on my own, I don't ne-"

"Second period started twenty minutes ago, you've got no make-up on and _all _of your books are with you and not in your locker," Tony butted into her rambling, he knew when people where late to lesson hell he'd been like it plenty of times when he was at MIT –except the make-up part of course- following behind her he found his eyes drifting up those long legs they were perfection in that little –but conservative- skirt she was wearing and _damn _that ass.

Sighing in defeat she turned to face the older man/boy –it was a toss-up between the two terms- really not wanting to give into his logical thinking but he had a point, "Fine, just keep up and don't drop any of my books," She muttered before continuing on her way to class, despite her first lesson being in the second period Ginny took the luxury of the extra hour in bed every Thursday but this time she'd over slept and already decided that from now on she'd get up half an hour earlier, 'that'll make sure that I'm not late again' she thought briefly as she turned the corner relaxing a little as she saw the door to her classroom was still open and to her that meant that she wasn't officially late, glancing back to see if the womaniser had kept up she blushed profusely when she noticed that he was staring at her legs.

"Would you stop that!" Ginny hissed reaching to pull her skirt down a little bit more, it wasn't like she was wearing a mini-skirt but it was a hot day and jeans weren't going to cut it, one of the things she couldn't stand were guys leering at her it made her uncomfortable.

Tony's eyes snapped up to her face never in his life had he been told to stop staring with the tone the redhead before him had just used, usually it was a more playful encouragement for him to keep going but this was new… and he liked it a new type of girl to work out how she worked but he wasn't looking to sleep with her because she was clearly uninterested in his advances, "Oh sorry… um this your class?" He asked as they came to a stop a couple of feet before the open door and handed back her books and notes, "Again really sorry about bumping into you like that…"

"Yes this is my class… and I guess I should say thanks… for carrying my things," Virginia said out of politeness, she really didn't want to be seen with Tony Stark let alone talk to him despite him being the opposite of his reputation, checking out aside, bundling her other books into her arms she gave him a fake smile, "Good bye then,"

For the second time that morning she'd been halted by the playboy while he'd not hit on her he was pretty determined to stall her for as long as possible, "I didn't even get to know your name…" He smiled at her in a way that both said 'I like you let's go out' and 'I'm being polite', and she had to fight down the blush that was threatening to creep its way on her cheeks, there was no denying it Tony Stark was an attractive guy but he had a personality that sucked to be quite honest.

"I don't see why it's important but I have a feeling you won't let me go until I tell you," Virginia sighed for the umpteenth time that morning and looked away from him to glance at her watch she couldn't afford to be stalled any more than she had already been and when she returned her eyes to his general head area, she couldn't bear to make eye-contact with him in fear of being caught in his hypnotic eyes, she notice that there was a smug and triumphant smirk on his face, "You can wipe that look off your face right now," His face dropped and resembled a nine year old sulking, "My name is Virginia, no last name no nickname."

"Aye aye cap'n," Tony mock saluted her to feign the shock she'd induced with her I'm-not-putting-up-with-your-shit tone, the last time he'd been spoken to like that had been before his mother had died '_No'_ He halted his own thoughts 'No thinking about them remember?' shaking his head slightly he rid himself of those memories as he was in mid-conversation with a girl who he might actually be able to be friends with, "Virginia? Huh… haven't heard that name before… it's pretty nice…"

"Yes… thanks… now if you don't mind I really ought to get to my class…" She murmured taking a step back to give herself her personal bubble back, Tony really was too close for comfort and the smell of his after-shave was starting to send her a little light-headed she blamed her asthma, it had _nothing _to do with the fact it smelled really really good, "Good-bye Tony…"

"Bye…" The young billionaire smiled at the redhead in front of him, he wished that he would see her again because she did seem like a genuine person and she didn't have to know that he'd research her as soon as he got back home to the mansion, not in a creepy pervy way but so he could 'accidentally' bump into her again sometime and try to persuade her into getting to know him, she turned away from him with a small smile on her face and he couldn't help but take one last look at her long legs as she walked into class, "…Virginia,"

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><p><strong>All done so hopefully i can try to get chap4 up in the next 2 weeks but for now read and review guys :D<strong>


	5. Chapter 4: Weekend Afternoons

**Hi guys sorry for the delayed update but i've had a ridiculous amount of college work D: which also means i might not be able to update regularly soon as i have exams in May and revision starts now :/ Thanks again to Shannon for being such a wonderful beta :) and enjoy this next chapter**

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><p>Saturday afternoons were Tony's favourite part of the week, no college tutoring, the girl from the night before had left hours ago so the genius had the whole mansion to himself. Mostly. There were still his two robotic AI in the workshop with him but he was the only human life form in the building which didn't bother him at all. He much more enjoyed the company of his creations despite Butterfingers and Dummy being the most incapable artificial intelligences ever.<p>

The 'bots were more pets than 'people', they could only communicate in beeps and chirps (much like R2D2) and could, at most perform fairly complex hands-on work. One of the reasons for Tony to create Jarvis, he needed an AI that could take care of the mansion's workings and security since it was such a massive area, but he also wanted to have 'someone' smart enough to keep up with his fast-paced mind when he was on an idea track. Grainy answer machine voice aside, Jarvis had pretty much become 'his' own person in the last sixteen months since his creation and Tony was more than grateful for the help that AI had given him when planning new weapon designs and reminding him to leave the workshop from time to time so he could eat which wasn't in his programming and that surprised the inventor making him realise that he really had created an AI that could think for itself and take into consideration human needs despite them not applying to itself for it to 'live'.

"SiR i WoUlD rEcOmMeNd ThAt YoU mOvE tO tHe KiTcHeN aNd AcQuIrE sOmE fOoD. iT hAs BeEn TwElVe HoUrS sInCe YoU lAsT cOnSuMeD sOmeThInG oThEr ThAn CoFfEe."

Looking up from the paper covered desk in response to his 'butler's' advice, Tony appeared dishevelled his hair sticking out every which way and dark circles under his eyes, he'd spent most of his 'Tinker Time' attempting to design a device that could cause short-term paralysis, something the DoD had suggested to help with Special Ops missions that involved capture not termination of a target. He wasn't a fan of the idea but Obie (Tony's replacement father-figure and stand-in CEO until it was time for a Stark to take the reins again) had been quite insistent that it'd be effective and bring in a 'mega-shit tonne' of profit for Stark Industries.

Shaking his heads of his thoughts Tony tilted his head back, his gaze trained on the ceiling to talk the 'mother-hen' of an AI,

"Thanks buddy I'll be out of here soon as this data has saved," He replied wishing that it was possible to upgrade his technology but a) not even genius' like him could get the new to exist and b) even if it did exist then he was sure that **_he _**wouldn't be rich to have it.

"YoU aRe MoSt WeLcOmE mAsTeR." Jarvis said redirecting his voice into the speakers along the stairs that lead up to the living quarters of the mansion, as his creator moved in that direction, "i BeLiEvE tHeRe To Be LeFt OvEr PiZzA iN tHe ReFrIdGeRaToR."

"Hey! None of that 'Master' crap remember?" Tony said as he stood up, his desk chair rolling about two feet back when the backs of his legs bumped into it, "I know you're programmed with a formal speech pattern but stick to the 'Sir's' and 'Mr Stark's' alright? 'Master' makes me sound like some evil genius wizard…"

"As YoU wIsH _sIr…_" Came the reply and the young billionaire could've sworn he detected a hint of sarcasm, 'Nah…' He thought to himself climbing the stairs to the main floor of the mansion, taking the steps two at a time 'short my ass' He said to himself remembering Rhodey's words when they'd last seen each other.

Heading into the large, stylish kitchen, Tony made a bee-line for the fridge and pulled open the door grinning at the sight of the take-away pizza box then proceeded to do a little air grab upon the discovery that there was still half of the pizza left. Not bothering with a plate he carried the cardboard box into the lounge dropping it onto the glass coffee table as he dropped himself onto the sofa. Said sofa was plenty big enough for six maybe seven people to sit comfortably but here Tony was with it all to himself.

"Jarvis pull up the news channel for us," He called up to the ceiling, he knew that AI could still hear him perfectly clear without him needing to aim his voice but Tony thought it was the proper thing to do, he wanted Jarvis to 'feel' like his own person, computer program or not and the genius thought the best way to do so was to talk _to _Jarvis rather than _at _him.

"cErTaInLy SiR," Less than a second later the large screen opposite the sofa flashed to life, 'great' Tony muttered internally whilst chewing on pizza slice, 'The weather _had _to be on now… It's Malibu for fucks sake! Roasting or raining no in-between'

Not really paying attention to the exact words blaring out from the TV, it was just there for background noise while he ate, then for the umpteenth time since Thursday he thought about the redhead who seemed to be mostly immune to his charm. Now he used 'mostly' immune because she had blushed somewhat either out of embarrassment or frustration didn't matter she still showed some kind of reaction.

Tony Stark was not a stalker or a pervert (contrary to popular belief), he was just the type of person that when presented with something or someone new and unknown and interesting he couldn't stop thinking about it or them until he's satisfied himself with knowledge, which was usually a day of tinkering in the workshop. It was a feeling like when you can't put a book down, have to see it through to the end. However this feeling was really only reserved for science and engineering things, _not_ people so in a way he was more intrigued by the mysterious Virginia but also very scared because he didn't spend his days thinking about girls that meant _feelings _which he certainly did not want (not the relationship type clearly, long lists of character defects, all the mistakes he's made - largely public) He came to the conclusion that it was due to her shooting him down before he'd even had the chance to make a move on her, that was new,_different._

But all he came up with was dead ends, well more a case he'd narrowed it down to four girls called Virginia, he had no idea what year or what course the redhead was in (he'd been staring at her legs too much to notice the type of books he was carrying for her). Turns out that as a 'staff member' he had authorised access to most of the files in the University, only one problem though, there were no photos so he couldn't see who was the fiery redhead Virginia he'd run into and he wasn't going to embarrass himself by knocking on dorms rooms in the hope that he be right first time. Highly unlikely. Well twenty-five percent actually but Tony didn't like odds lower than eighty.

Tony just had to hope that they'd have a second collision not literal he didn't think his heart could take another scene with his phone in the air.

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><p><strong>Read and review if you enjoyed :) it really helps the muse *leaves out cookies for you all*<strong>


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